Military command treated fraternization as a strategic threat precisely because it humanized enemies

Evidence

Both the Allied (British and French) and German high commands had a major problem on their hands. The military feared that fraternization had humanized the combatants on both sides. Some of the field officers warned the soldiers in the opposing trenches to stay low when hostilities resumed. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 661

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEEPTHINKING: Bandura reveals the flip side: institutions that profit from violence actively suppress humanization mechanisms — dehumanization isn’t just a cognitive error but a strategically enforced policy tool.

Related

• Military command recognized humanization of the enemy as a threat to combat effectiveness. (similarity 0.95)
• Dehumanizing enemies can change soldiers until they dehumanize entire civilian populations. (similarity 0.78)